Welcome to F.T. Politics, the Financial Times's weekly podcast on what's happening in Westminster.

I'm Sebastian Payne. In this week's episode we'll be discussing the Russian

spy attack in Salisbury and its implications for Britain's foreign policy,

plus Philip Hammond's speech on financial services after Brexit.

I'm delighted to be joined by David Bond, the FT's Defence and Security editor,

Chief Foreign Affairs commentator Gideon Rachman,

City Editor Jonathan Ford, and Laura Hughes Hughes our political correspondent.

Thank you all for joining.

And if you like this episode of EFT politics, don't forget to subscribe through the usual

channels to receive it to your device every Saturday morning.

The country has been shocked this week by the unfolding poisoning of a Russian spy

in the cathedral town of Salisbury.

Sir Jay Scripple and his daughter were apparently poisoned with a nerve

gas on Sunday. Both are in a critical condition in hospital as of Friday and

there are echoes of the murder of Alexander Litt Vinenko, another former Russian spy on British soil.

Fingers are already pointing towards Moscow and the possible involvement of the Russian state.

If this is proven, what happens next and what does that mean for Britain's relationship with Russia?

David Bond, can you just begin by telling us as of the time of recording, one of the hard facts

we know about this case is a lot of rumor and conjecture going around.

Absolutely I mean there has been a lot of speculation as we know about what exactly

has happened but really the actual facts are quite few and far between.

So what we do know is that a nerve agent was definitely used in an attack which has been described

...